I know that things have changed and it is much more difficult these days to get bookings to 'play out'. Maybe for dancing, or old folks homes for them to have a 'sing-along'. But from what people tell me, it is much easier to get a booking if you sing as well as play.
On Christmas Eve our family decided to go to our local Pub, and I was thrilled to see that at 7pm they were having a 'Musical Evening of Live Entertainment'. Just the one person doing it, and he had already set up his amplifier .. with two speakers, so the music was going to be played in Stereo.
Then, just after 6:30pm, pieces of paper and a pencil were passed round the various tables for us to write down the names of any songs we wanted to hear. This was looking even more promising and I wrote down a couple of 'oldies' I would like him to play (not Christmas Music). These sheets were collected up and passed round to him at the back.
On the dot of 7 o'clock he appeared, with the sheets of our requests. And with him he had his mobile phone .. which he connected to his amplification system. Then one song at a time, he did a YouTube search for our requests and streamed them directly from YouTube through his speakers for us to listen to. Everybody was happy to hear their songs being played, and the evening was a great success. No playing or singing from him.
I kid you not! As Punch would say on Weston-super-Mare seafront, "That's the way to do it! That's the way to do it!".
Hugh